OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14240378

GROENDYKE TRANSPORT, INC.

ANGLETON, TX· 1987-10-14T00:00:00

Event: RESPIRATORY, TANK TRUCK, CONFINED SPACE, PPE, METHYLENE CHLORIDE, WORK RULES, INHALATION, TANK CLEANING, TOXIC FUMES, CHEMICAL
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #106332729
Employer profile: GROENDYKE TRANSPORT, INC.
Summary number: 14240378
Report ID: 626600

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN HE BREATHED METHYLENE CHLORIDE IN TANK

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WERE ASSIGNED THE JOB OF CLEANING A TANK TRUCK WHICH HAD CONTAINED POLYPROPYLENE GLYCOL. THE TANK WAS FIRST CLEANED WITH HOT SO APY WATER IN A CLOSED SYSTEM. AFTER THE TANK TRUCK WAS DRAINED, EMPLOYEE #1 ENTE RED THE TANK TO CLEAN SOME SPOTS WITH METHYLENE CHLORIDE, A CLEANING AGENT USED FOR PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCTS. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS OVERCOME BY METHYLENE CHLORIDE AND COLLAPSED. HE DIED FIVE DAYS LATER. EMPLOYEE #1 DID NOT FOLLOW PROPER TANK ENTR Y PROCEDURES.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 21 M

Nature of injury
2

Part of body
4

Event type
8

Source
9

Occupation code
999

Human factor
19

Environmental factor
9

Task assigned
1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.